Chapter 276: Would You Like To Absorb High Rank Gene Potential?

Even here, Mia had continued hiding herself after hunting the Grim Apes in the surrounding area. She had only revealed herself after Alex and the others realized that someone else had been killing them, because if she had remained hidden, everyone would have become suspicious and assumed that the unknown creature was another enemy.

Mia had also rushed directly toward Alex because he was the only person there who could immediately vouch for her. The more Alex thought about it, the more certain he became that Mia had deliberately chosen this moment to reveal herself.

"Are you alright, Alex?" Emma asked from a short distance away. She deliberately stayed away from Alex and Mia, and although she was trying to appear casual, Alex could tell that she was ready to attack at any moment.

"Yes. I don’t know if you’ve seen it mentioned online, but animals and plants were also summoned to the Land of Origin, and many of them gained some level of intelligence so they could survive here," Alex explained. "Mia seems to be one of them, so don’t worry. She is my cat."

"Cat?" Emma looked Mia up and down with an uncertain expression. "She looks more like a Netherclaw Prowler to me."

"I’m not sure why she looks like this either, but I can confirm that she’s not a monster. She’s a Beast, and she’s also my cat," Alex replied.

"But—"

"If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility," Alex said before Emma could continue. Emma nodded, although her expression remained uncomfortable as she continued watching Mia carefully.

Emma had been acting cheerful throughout their journey, but Alex knew she did that because she wanted to keep everyone’s mood from becoming too tense. After seeing so many monsters nearly kill them, there was no way she could simply ignore the danger posed by a creature that looked exactly like one of their previous enemies.

The first monster that had nearly killed Emma by splitting her body in two had been a Netherclaw Prowler, after all. It was understandable that she would remain wary even after Alex assured her that Mia was different.

While everyone remained silent, Matthew suddenly spoke in a much brighter tone. "Mia seems to like you quite a lot. She hasn’t moved away from you at all, so you must be a pretty good owner."

Alex nodded, although he looked back at Mia with some confusion. She had never been the affectionate type, and whenever he tried to hug her or kiss her forehead, she would immediately screech with an annoyed meow as if he had tried to take away her food.

On the other hand, whenever Alex ignored her for too long, Mia would eventually come over and snuggle against him until she received enough attention. Her behavior had always been like that, and Alex was used to it. It was surprising she was snuggling to him right now, though.

Mia stared at him for several seconds before suddenly pushing her energy into his body. Alex immediately noticed that it wasn’t mana, although he couldn’t determine whether it was Aura or Faith.

Normally, he could distinguish the two by observing how easily the energy moved through his body. If the energy struggled to move through him, it was usually Aura, while Faith could flow through his body much more naturally.

However, his current condition made that distinction almost impossible. The enormous amount of mana he had released earlier was still rampaging through his body, and even Faith would have difficulty moving through him under these circumstances.

Mia seemed to realize the same thing. She let out a small meow, stopped pushing her energy into his body, and stepped away from him.

"Meow."

She moved her tail toward the forest before looking back at Alex. Based on her behavior, Alex immediately understood what she wanted.

’She must be worried about the Basilisk’s Origin Energy. It looks like she’s trying to lead us somewhere safe where I can recover.’

"Give us a moment. We still need to collect the loot," Alex said while looking at Mia.

Mia stared at him for a moment before sitting down and waiting. Alex slowly stood up and joined the others as they began collecting the remains of the two High Rank monsters.

Matthew’s group naturally took the loot from the Lightning Grim Ape, while Alex’s group gathered the valuable materials from the adult Stone Basilisk. The Basilisk’s scales were particularly valuable because they could be used to create powerful armor, so Joseph took responsibility for collecting them.

It wasn’t easy because of their size and hardness, but the material was far too valuable to leave behind. Emma, meanwhile, insisted that everyone collect as much of the Basilisk’s meat as possible.

"Since it’s a High Rank Species, the meat should have a lot of nutritional value," she explained while helping with the process. Alex glanced at her suspiciously because he had a sinking feeling that nutrition wasn’t actually the main reason she wanted the meat.

She wanted it for the taste.

Still, the meat really was valuable. The Basilisk’s flesh contained an enormous amount of energy and was apparently a D-Rank item, making it far more valuable than ordinary monster meat.

Unfortunately, their limited Inventory meant they couldn’t take everything. The meat contained a large amount of Origin Energy, which made it surprisingly taxing to store and carry in large quantities, especially since they already had plenty of other valuable materials.

Emma, however, refused to give up so easily. She convinced everyone to take at least some portions, explaining that the meat of a High Rank species would definitely provide benefits to their bodies, and she even managed to convince Mia to store some of it in her Inventory, which made Alex shake his head.

Emma clearly didn’t know that Mia was a glutton. Whatever meat she had just given Mia was probably never coming back, especially since Mia had always shown that she was more than capable of taking advantage of any opportunity to get food.

Alex ignored their discussion and took out the Gene Potential he had obtained from the Stone Basilisk before absorbing it. The familiar sensation spread through his body, and a moment later, several notifications appeared in front of him.

[Your Species level has increased. Level 12 → Level 13.]

[Mind (+3), Mana (+1), Free Stat Points (+2).]

..

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